Heathrow to New York

We began the day at the Premier Inn with the alarm going off at 4.30. As this is my alarm it plays Johnny Cash's "Daddy sang Bass" which is pretty sure to wake you up :-)

While the night was somewhat broken - waking up a few times dreaming I'd missed the alarm and the plane!! - I did feel refreshed.

After making a cup of tea for Drew I showered, shaved etc. then we left the room at 5.10 to catch the Hoppa at 5.24. The journey to terminal 3 was much quicker than coming out last night. So by 5.35 we were at the airport and having dropped our bags off went on the security and were out the other side by 5.50, some kind of record. Either they are getting more efficient or the early hour means it is less busy. Amazingly Drew did not set the buzzer off on going through the metal detector, something he often does.

So by 6.00 a.m. we were in one of the airport's Executive Lounges enjoying coffee, croissants and fruit while making good use of their wi-fi. I've said on previous holidays how much I think it is worth paying a little extra for this comfort, a relaxing start to the holiday. Why do I work so hard all year if not to pay for these little comforts. I include the, now, traditional photo of Drew in the Lounge.

Last year when Drew had rationed our holiday expenditure to do some work on the house we slummed it at the airport and got hot and bothered. <<Co-pilot's note - Readers of previous blogs will know that Mr B's definition of slumming it is very different from that of other right minded individuals, e.g. a Drew.>>

Taking this time to compete the blog post about yesterday was a good use of what is often wasted time in the airport.

At 8.20 we left the lounge and headed to the gate. We boarded at 8.55 and were welcomed to Premium Economy, a luxury I would also recommend, with a drink and a lovely hot towel. There are 35 of us in this cabin, which means service (and loo access) is significantly improved on other parts of the plane. The latter is not a small consideration when your stomach is as sensitive to flying as Drew's

We left the gate at 9.30 and were on the way to New York. Virgin Atlantic have developed a much more engaging safety video than I'd seen in the past with humorous voices - worth listening too if you've not flown with Virgin since last year..

As ever as soon as we had stopped climbing we had drinks and pretzels and soon after it was time for lunch.

When Lunch was served we had a starter of green salad, these mixed leaves which included chicory, lolo rosso, and three other types of lettuce also had fresh basil, cucmber and cherry tomatoes. This was served with a little, I mean minute, jar of oil and balsamic vinegar to drizzle over the salad, yummy.

For mains I had the peri-peri chicken with a citrus rice cooked through with peas and sweetcorn - plane food is often bland and boring, but not this, while the portions were much smaller than my preferred size meal, it was amazingly tasty. Drew opted for the Beef in peppercorn sauce which was served with green beans mash and he eat every bit saying how enjoyable it was. Dessert was a blueberry cheesecake, Drew had two of these, in return I had two portions of the Jacob's crackers with Boursin herb and garlic soft cheese.

Another feature of Premium Economy that makes the extra cost worth it in my mind is eating food of china plates using metal crockery (or silverware as I should call it now I am in the States).

Unusually Drew did what I do on flights, read and snoozed, I did the same. Neither of us put on the entertainment station other than to see our route on the 'SkyMap'.

As ever we were regularly offered orange juice, water and tea - and about half way through the flight Drew had an Ice-Lolly, given my diabetes it wasn't for me, and Drew thought it would be greedy for him to have two, given the earlier double dessert.

As we approached Labrador the sea was full of icebergs. I've linked to the photo rather than put it in the blog as you need to see it in high resolution to see the bergs due to the hight we were at, on Flickr you will be able to zoom in.

More drinks were followed by a snack and we arrived at JFK at 12.10, just 15 minutes late. We left the plane at 12.20 and went through immigration. We were out by 1.10, given we had spent over an hour in this area before we were impressed that things have been speeded up. Once the guy had all my fingerprints and a photo of me, I was through. Drew on the other hand got asked why he always comes to the states in August, the border guards are normally not that chatty.

Another, smaller queue and we were in the Taxi by 1.30 and in the Hotel 70, Park Avenue at 2.00 - again the fastest we have done JFK to midtown Manhattan, four years ago the same journey took us 90 minutes.

In answer to yesterday's question about the way to get to the airport we both feel a whole lot fresher today than we did the last few times we came to the states - then we were often in bed by 7.00 whereas today it is time for a walk and then food at 7 or 8 before a more reasonable bed time. We'll see if it works in tomorrow's episode :-)